Quadruple killing victim shot 2 people in May at West 7th club, Fort Worth police alleged
One of four people who were shot to death at the same time last week inside a sport utility vehicle in the Morningside section of Fort Worth fired into a crowd at a nightclub in the city in May, shooting two bystanders, authorities have alleged.
Amari’yon Cravin, 17, died on Friday at a hospital about a half hour after he was shot in his torso, according to the Tarrant County Medical Examiner’s Office.
Ricky Craddock, 19, and Jaizson Nash, 17, also were slain. The name and age of the fourth victim has not been released.
Cravin was indicted on nine counts of aggravated assault with a deadly weapon and one count of deadly conduct in the May shooting. He was held after his arrest at a Tarrant County jail on a total bond of $145,000. Court records do not make clear when was Cravin released. A warrant on a matter connected to the bond was issued for Cravin’s arrest on the day before he was shot to death.
Cravin opened fire outside Varsity Tavern, at 1005 Norwood St., about 1:30 a.m. on May 8, police said. After he fired shots into a crowd, Cravin either ran or walked away. Two people were shot and survived. A third person was also injured in a way police did not describe. The victims were a man and two women in their 20s, police said.
A Fort Worth police spokesperson has said the Norwood Street shooting occurred during an argument between two people on a sidewalk and the victims who were shot were bystanders.
(Police released the video below when they were trying to identify the Varsity Tavern shooting suspect.)
Homicide detectives believe that a robbery of drugs motivated the quadruple homicide on Friday in which Cravin and the three others were shot about 7 p.m. in the 1200 block of Jessamine Street.
A neighbor’s surveillance camera video recording reviewed by the Star-Telegram shows a gray Dodge Challenger waiting at the scene for about 15 minutes before a second vehicle, an SUV, pulls behind it. In the video, a passenger gets out of the Challenger and enters the SUV. Shortly after, gunfire erupts inside the SUV.
The driver of the Challenger gets out and looks at the SUV behind him before getting back in his vehicle and driving down the street, the video shows. The driver turns around and pulls next to the SUV. He stops next to it, then drives away before returning once more and leaving.
Police were searching for the Challenger’s driver. They have not announced an arrest in the killings. Craddock, Nash and the victim whose name has not been released died at the scene.
Police are reviewing home surveillance videos as part of the investigation. They recovered multiple guns that had been fired at the scene, a police spokesperson said.
There have been 88 homicides in Fort Worth this year. At this time last year, there had been 89 criminal killings in the city, according to the police department.
This story was originally published October 10, 2022 at 5:22 PM.
